Every now and then YouTube makes a really great recommendation. Today it introduced me to a new band called Oceans of Slumber. It's a prog metal band out of Houston with a black woman singing. How often do you see that? But unlike Alexis of Straight Line Stitch, she sings beautifully, more like a symphonic metal singer. And we get some gutteral growls from the guitarist.

I'm not sure how I feel about the rest of their music right now, but their cover of Solitude by Candlemass is pretty rad, but I'm not sure that her voice fits the song extremely well. She has a pleasant and soulful voice, but it's not particularly powerful most of the time. Still cool, though.

I'm not sure how I feel about the rest of their music right now, but their cover of Solitude by Candlemass is pretty rad, but I'm not sure that her voice fits the song extremely well. She has a pleasant and soulful voice, but it's not particularly powerful most of the time. Still cool, though.

Nailed right on the head. Having said that - add some dynamics to her singing - the sound, drummer and harsh vox are already awesome, they could be really, really good. I will watch out for them.

They're "newish"--been around for a few years now, having released albums before Winter.

Nevertheless, I agree that they're fucking awesome. That aside, I'm not entirely sure why they were passed over for inclusion here on MA, and would be interested in the particulars of the mods' consensus that led to their verdict, especially when it literally took them months to decide, which doesn't happen every day.

In any case, I'm glad YouTube was a good friend to you today.

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ThePoop wrote:

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I believe it was Confucius who said "Life is merely a series of intervals in which one waits for the next Agalloch album."

Whoa. That cover was awesome. Why aren't these guys on the archives again?

Memory's blurry, but I think it had something to do with there being too much of a profound prog rock influence. Not enough consistent metal elements. But I'm not sure I can be quoted reliably on that.

Ask a mod. Or search in the appropriate thread (you probably know the one).

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ThePoop wrote:

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I believe it was Confucius who said "Life is merely a series of intervals in which one waits for the next Agalloch album."

Just listened to the first song. I'm sure the band will say I don't really get what they are trying to do, but I've always thought it was very hard to mesh together melodic singing parts with screaming/growls in music like this. Very few bands manage to pull it off in a manner I find convincing, and I'm not really convinced here.

For this type of band, I think they would be better off by ditching the screaming/growls altogether and just making a heavy prog-rock/metal album.

I tried giving this album a shot a while ago because I heard good things and the description of the music was intriguing, but I found it really flat and boring. The song writing felt really disjointed to me, the hooks weren't especially catchy or memorable, and there was a certain Seether-esque cheese that was present (which isn't necessarily bad, I thought Novembre's Ursa was good and it had this vibe in spots). Overall, I was pretty disappointed because I was expecting more.

That being said, the band is definitely technically proficient, they can all play well and the vocals are great, it just hasn't come together as well as I think it could yet.

Last edited by PvtNinjer on Wed Sep 28, 2016 1:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not sure how I feel about the rest of their music right now, but their cover of Solitude by Candlemass is pretty rad, but I'm not sure that her voice fits the song extremely well. She has a pleasant and soulful voice, but it's not particularly powerful most of the time. Still cool, though.

Nailed right on the head. Having said that - add some dynamics to her singing - the sound, drummer and harsh vox are already awesome, they could be really, really good. I will watch out for them.

Yeah that's how I feel based on these songs. This isn't really my style so I don't plan on digging any further anyway, but her voice really doesn't mesh with the heavier parts. Very smooth but not exactly powerful. Not awful but not great either, just not for me.

^ I like the contrast of her voice with the heavier parts. She isn't the typical symphonic/operatic metal singer. It's nice to hear something different within the context of this style. However, that's not to say their style is easily definable at all. "Winter" was cool once the song seemed to pick up, but I liked "Suffer the Last Bridge" right away. Definitely will keep them on my radar. Also, just saw that they did a cover of "Nights in White Satin" on this new album. I'll have to check that out later.

The last album(Winter) in fine tough its quite inconstent when we speak about how "metal" it sounds. First two songs are awseome but the rest are much softer. At the end of the album there is another song with heavier riffs but that´s all. Anyway the singer has an awesome voice and when they want to sound metal, they make a good job.

Houston-based progressive metal outfit, OCEANS OF SLUMBER, have just announced the release of their forthcoming full-length album, “The Banished Heart”, on March 2, 2018 via Century Media Records!

Singer Cammie Gilbert comments, "Guided by our resolve to only make music that is real to us, we explored a new depth and crawled deep inside ourselves to uncover what had been hiding and bring it out into the light. Sometimes in life there are places where we are able to turn away, to get away with applying the utilities of denial, but not this time. This time we forced ourselves to stay in that uncomfortable and terrifying place. To explore its vast and dark void in hopes of uncovering a better path out of it, not only for ourselves, but for all those familiar with that same dark place within themselves."

OCEANS OF SLUMBER mystify listeners with atmospheric melodies over darkened dynamics that range from the perversely sinister to the adventurously progressive, creating an undeniably epic wall of sound that has become the Texans’ trademark.

That Candlemass cover wasn't too bad. Not big on the production in that video but that could've been just because YouTube + my phones speakers. Will definitely check out. Should I start with that EP + Winter?

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Murtal wrote:

In flames became MeloDICK Death Metal

TheDefiniteArticle wrote:

Also hopefully they take it as a sign they're not meant to make more albums.